Deserving Of Trust

Elian violently coughed up a mouthful of blood onto the floor beside him, wiping some of it from the side of his lips with his shirt's sleeve.

Sprawled on the ground spread-eagle with jolts of organ-rending pain coursing through every part of his body at even the slightest movement, he was struggling to stand back up.

He attempted to roll over and get on his feet but collapsed through the unbearable pain. Eventually, he wailed a painful moan and gave up.

Within seconds, Rynard dealt a bone-crushing blow to Elian's midsection by stomping his foot onto the thin boy's stomach, making him groan in anguish again.

Rynard stood triumphantly over Elian, one foot planted on his squirming body, arms akimbo, and chest puffed out. He posed like a mythical hero after slaying a beast, obviously very pleased with himself.

Since their homeroom teacher wasn't in the class, currently escorting a fainted student to the medical ward, no one dared to intervene as Rynard relentlessly abused his scrawny victim.

In fact, rather than stopping the ruthless assault, nearby students circled around with faces full of excitement and started cheering at the ongoing show.

The cheers only died down into gleeful murmurs now when Elian, hurt and helpless, finally fell down and failed to rise up again. He put up a good fight— or at least tried to.

There's not much a short, malnourished boy like him could do against a monstrously built young man like Rynard, especially when the latter even used magic.

Yes, after failing to inflict any severe injuries to his victim in the first couple of blows, Rynard used his Rune to cast a spell that hardened his entire right arm as if it was carved from some kind of earthy rock.

After that, just one hit to the solar plexus, and Elian never got back up.

Smirking, Rynard proudly declared, "Don't they say that Chaos Spawns aren't easy to bleed? It didn't take much to make this one throw up his filthy blood."

Everyone in the class erupted into scornful laughter as if it were the most amusing thing they had ever heard.

"Well," Rynard raised his hand, and the whole class turned quiet, reverently allowing him to continue speaking.

Even in his bruised and beaten state, Elian noticed this small detail and felt nothing but… jealousy.

Just a simple gesture from Rynard made everyone present before him fall into utter silence. To Elian, this was true power. To be able to control a room full of powerful people without even uttering a single word.

Rynard, meanwhile, turned to a pink-haired girl in his clique standing by his side and casually asked, "Sarah, be a doll and remind me what's the penalty issued by the Earthen Empire for the crime of using the blasphemous Chaos Magic?"

Sarah, the only person in the class who had been standing there wordlessly, not at all enjoying this one-sided bully session, glanced back at Rynard and resisted the urge to roll her light azure eyes.

She was Rynard's girlfriend, but she never liked when he acted like this. However, she also knew better than to argue with him in public.

In the end, she stopped twirling the curls of her cherry-pink hair and spared a guilty glance at Elian before half-heartedly answering, "Execution."

Elian, still gasping and struggling beneath Rynard's foot, gritted his teeth. A pang of somber ache tugged at his heart upon hearing the young woman's indifferent voice. The physical pain paled in comparison to the emotional sting that struck him deep within.

Rynard, on the other hand, victoriously grinned as if he had just conquered the world. He cast a look of superiority at Elian and nodded, "Since I'm merciful and generous, I'll let you live, freak."

He then lifted his leg off Elian's stomach, finally letting him breathe comfortably, and strode toward the exit.

Without even bothering to turn around, he caustically added while everyone cleared a way for him to walk away, "And besides, I can't take your life here even if I want to. But we'll enter our First Rift tomorrow. Pray to your Ancestral God that you don't cross paths with me in the other world, or I will kill you there."

One by one, everyone in the class followed Rynard out, not forgetting to direct a few words of mockery or harsh curses at the battered young boy on the floor.

"See you never, freak!"

"I hope your kind dies!"

"Don't bother coming back from the Riftwalk~!"

Before long, only two figures were left behind in the spacious classroom – one, a gorgeous young woman with cherry-pink hair, and the other, a frail young man with black hair and eyes resembling two pools of darkness.

While one looked like nothing short of an angel, the other bore a likeness to a feeble demon in human clothing. The atmosphere in the classroom became palpable, with beams of sunlight filtering through the colored glass window and falling between them.

Silently whimpering, the black-haired young man rose to his feet, painfully clutching his belly. He locked eyes with the fetching young woman before him and sneered, "Execution, huh?"

Sarah averted her gaze, a subtle hint of guilt was clearly hidden beneath the detached expression on her pretty face. "You know I had to say that. If I had shown any hesitance, he would've taken it out on you."

She snapped her head to glare back at Elian and fiercely asked, "Or is that what you wanted? To be seriously injured before the Riftwalk?"

Elian scoffed, shaking his head. Without a word, he limped past Sarah and headed toward the classroom door, not wanting to spend a single moment alone with her.

Before he could step out, however, the pink-haired beauty called out to him from behind. "Elian, you know that no one can survive the Apocalypses alone! You need a close-knit group of people that you can trust, no matter how strong you are! A group of powerful people!"

"People that you can trust, you say?" Elian paused on the doorframe for a fleeting moment and chuckled despite the violent jolt of pain that shot through his ribs. "So those are the people you decided to trust? A bunch of bullies?!"

"They are not all bad!" Sarah defended. "They just don't like… You know…"

Elian spun around and met Sarah's azure gaze. "Don't like what? Freaks like me?"

"Chaos Spawns!" Sarah asserted. "They don't like Chaos Spawns, like most people in the world."

Elian stood there silently for a moment. Sarah tried to maintain eye contact, but she failed and eventually turned her head away.

Elian also redirected his gaze, fixating his tired eyes on the back of his right hand where a small dot was glowing in a vivid shade of crimson.

Finally, the young Chaos Spawn exited the classroom, leaving behind only a few parting words, "I hope you survive our First Riftwalk because I wouldn't want to share hell with you."